Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) has confirmed that he will protect Speaker Mike Johnson’s position after he agreed a foreign aid package that will send tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
In an interview on NBC’s ‘This Week,’ Khanna was full of praise for the Republican speaker and said he would oppose any attempts to remove him.
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna tells @JonKarl that he would vote to support Speaker Mike Johnson if Republicans tried to remove him for securing Ukraine aid.
“He did the right thing here and he deserves to keep his job until the end of this term.” https://t.co/xaDuxyoG51 pic.twitter.com/znG8X4S0KR
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) April 21, 2024
Here is a transcript of the exchange:
HOST: Congressman Khanna, does Speaker Johnson deserve credit for how this played out?
KHANNA: He does. Look, we came into Congress together and he always cared about civility. He actually led the civility pledge. And he – we had one issue, which was give individual votes. Don’t lump things together. And I give him credit for doing this. I would actually vote to table any motion to vacate him. You know, Congressman McCaul quoted Churchill. One of the things Churchill said is that America always exhausted every wrong option until doing the right thing. And this shows that American democracy still is very strong.
KARL: You just said something significant. You said you would oppose the tabled – the motion to vacate. In other words, you will protect Speaker Johnson’s job if Marjorie Taylor Greene and the others go through with their threat to try to remove him?”
KHANNA: I would, through the end of the term. I expect Speaker Jeffries will be there in 2025.
KARL: Right – not – speaker, yes. Yes.
KHANNA: But look, I’m a progressive Democrat and I think you would have a few progressive Democrats doing that. And I disagree with Speaker Johnson on many issues and have been very critical of him. But he did the right thing here and he deserves to keep his job until the end of his term.
Khanna’s comments come as various Republicans, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar and Thomas Massie, have indicated they no longer have confidence in his leadership, amid rising anger at his commitment to funding foreign conflicts while the southern border remains wide open.